There is sufficient there to argue the case. Of course it is a quick summary but all the major issues you hit on can be backed up with a lot of supporting detail.

The other really big factor that adds to the points raised is the emergence of Arab nationalism in the late 1800s/ early 1900s and how it was blunted by the powers of the day due to the realisation that oil would become a critical commodity.

Some examples of British actions in protecting oil interests include the creation of Kuwait which is an artificial country created out in the desert and chopped off from greater Iraq & handed to a loyal tribe (now filthy rich - benevolent dictators). Then there is Saudi & the UAE ..... Dutch, British & US oil interests played a hand there, but these countries now have their destinies in their own hands, providing no radical Arab decides to sieze control of most or all the oil fields to use as a weapon against others (such as us).

Fact is that oil was nothing to the Arabs before west found a way to exploit it & providing they get a 'fair' reward for its use - that should be ok. As best as I can tell the Arabs get very handsomely rewarded for selling it to the west.

If it now transpires that they want to manipulate it instead of the west then I say give it back to them *but* not until we have found an alternative - up until that time we need to protect the flow.

The other issues about Israel are that it is the only practising democracy in the region. All the cuntries surrounding it are run by dictators. In one sense it shines as a beacon of advanced democracy and how it could work if given a fair chance.
The bits about how the Palestinians are the whipping post for Arab desire to destroy Israel, can be fairly debated except you won't find many Arabs who can debate it rationally. Most of them have completely forgotten how the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem(?), exhorted his fellow Arabs in the 1940s to drive the Jews into the ocean & kill then all - but to flee from them when they couldn't achieve the 1st goal.

Cheers

Doug Marker